Author: Will

I haven’t posted a ride in a while, but I have been doing lots of local cycling on trails, as well as various routes up Mont Salève. It’s been cold, wet, windy, sunny, warmer, foggy, snowy, etc. I love autumn on a bike. Some photos: My Favourite Local Hairpin: Snow rides atop Mont Salève: Enjoying a sunset with my neighbour (moo): Autumn Colours: Cycling past Cows: Happy to be above the clouds: Perfect Autumn Jura ride with Tim: Sadly, hay surfing season is pretty much over: I survived an attack by a pack of ferocious dogs: It’s been a great…

Busy doing your Christmas shopping? Looking for a 2017 alpine cycling calendar? Well look no further. Here are three calendars with my favourite photos of 2016. The first: Cycling the Alps , the second Alpine Lakes, and finally an “Alpine Cows” Calendar. A few quick points: All photos were taken by me in 2016. I am making no money from this. The price is just what is charged by the printing company. I am not (even remotely) a professional photographer. All the photos are taken using a decent digital camera. But the quality of the photos has turned out well.…

Starting from Chamonix in the shadow of Mont Blanc, this fantastic loop is almost entirely on trails or unpaved roads. Views to die for and occasionally very, very steep. Cycle Route 3823525 – via Bikemap.net Chamonix is sometimes called the adventure capital of Europe. Skiing, mountain climbing, parapente, etc. But it’s a lousy place for road biking – a busy main road through and not much else. Mountain-biking can also be tough as steep mountains on each side of the valley limit roads. But there are definitely a few spectacular options with some planning. And this route is one of…

Mont Salève is a wonderful mountain for cycling. In Haute Savoie, France, it over-looks Geneva, Switzerland – it’s my “home mountain.” The cool part of this massif: one can ride several kilometres along the top, providing views of Mont Blanc and the Alps in one direction and Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) and the Jura mountains in the other. A few years ago I detailed the five road bike routes up Mont Salève – see here. But there are also all sorts of mountain bike options. I’ll map and describe several below. If I’ve missed anything interesting feel free to let…

For me, this is the most beautiful cycling climb in the Alps. Magical. Colle del Nivolet is a gigantic climb in Piemonte, Italy in the heart of the Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso. It was built between 1953 and 1963 to service the two hydroelectric dams up high. The national park, along with the Vanoise National Park (the connected French side of the highest mountains here – think Col de l’Iseran), make up one of the largest protected natural areas in Europe. Apparently the wild ibix here migrate between the two countries. Colle del Nivolet is the 3rd highest paved road…

This is a fantastic little known climb to a high alpine dam in Piemonte, Italy. It’s a steep (I do mean steep!), narrow little road that starts next to the beginning of the road to the legendary Colle del Nivolet. It’s easy to miss the start, don’t expect a sign (see map at bottom). It’s tough immediately with 6 quick, ferocious hairpins. There are a few tiny hamlets early on. How do people get up this in winter? About half way up the route is signed as dangerous, private, no cars without authorisation. Great! This reminded me of Lac Cap…

It’s tough to find a road with 2250 metres continuous climb (Stelvio has 1800m) – I can’t think of a paved climb in the Alps. This was one of the best rides of the year. 29 kms uphill with the second half unpaved and deserted. The reward at the end of the “road” – the beautiful Lago Misérin at 2580 metres. Back in June, I road-biked the paved part here – ending at roughly 1750 metres (this climb starts very low: 360m). It’s a great 18km climb with the best part the 14 or so hairpins to the finish above…

This is a ride of two parts. First, the fully paved road up to Avoriaz ski station, and then higher on a rough gravel road to a couple of cols perched on the French/Swiss border atop the ski slopes above Avoriaz. This 3D video of the route is fun: The two profiles above are only for the paved part of this ride. One is the route I climbed, basically the back route up to Col de la Joux Verte (1760m) then Avoriaz (1820m). The other is the route I descended, the direct road to Avoriaz from Morzine. See map below.…

Don’t confuse Col de Cenise with the also great Col du Mont-Cenis further south on the French/Italian border — see here. This is a very tough, quiet climb on the north edge of the French Alps, on the other side of the big mountains one rides beside while climbing Col de la Colombière. I started from the village of Thuet at 450 metres. The first few kilometres are also on the way to Plateau de Solaison. It’s consistently 10% or higher as the road climbs through the woods. I had planned to take the D286 through the Gorges du Bronze,…